Optical device



March 12, 1940. J JEFFREE 2,193,422

OPTICAL DEVICE Filed Jan. 23, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 12, 1940. JEFFREE I 2,193,422

OPTICAL DEVICE Filed Jan. 23, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 12, 1940 h. it e Q 1 UNITED STATES 1 PATENT os ss 1 I OPTICAL DEVICE John Henry Jeffree, Oxshott, England, assignorv to Scophony Limited, Campden Hill, London, England, a company of Great Britain Application January 23, 1937,, Serial No. 122,016

. In Great Britain January 25, 1936 6 Claims. '(Gl; 178-'7.6)

The present invention relates to optical degrasp is zero.. This is so because a point source, vices suitable for use in television systems parhaving zero areacan give out no light, and reptlcularly systems of the kind described in Britresents a purely hypothetical case. If y' is the v ish Patent Specification No. 433,945, certain feawidthin the same plane of the image formed on tures of which are described and claimed in my the screen B, then, assuming the angle a to be. 5 copending United States application Serial No. small, from the geometry of the'figure, 3,062, issued into Patent 2,140,584. I My present application forms a continuation in part of my said co-pending application. y

10, In te1evision ystems employing mechanical where p is the angle of convergence of the two 10 Scanning devices Such as mirror drums, it is rays referred to above, from the lens L. Thus sirable to reduce, in the direction of its motion, =W h W is the light grasp of the beam the dimension f the Scanner which produces converging onto the screen B, and this is equalthe high speed component of scanning. To acto the light grasp of the beam emerging from 16 complish this it is necessary to employ a scanthe e as Proved above- This Simple example hing hght beam which has a y small hght will serve to elucidate the statements'made in grasp in this dimension. The meaning of the the previous paragraphterm light grasp may be explained as follows. Now the beam o light issuing o a normal It is well known in optics that the quantity oi light Source, ch as an arc an incandescent 20 hght in a light beamvwhieh may be termed the lamp placed behind asymmetrical aperture in a 20 t flux depends not only on the brightness screen has a fairly large light grasp in any two of the Source andenalogous fa tor soon mutually perpendicular directions. To obtain geometrical factors. For a symmetrical beam, from this beam a having smaller light either converging or diverging, this geometrical grasp in one direction than ina second direction factor may be defined as the product of the area perpendicular to the first, 'ithas hitherto usually I of the exit pupil into the solid angle of divern necessary to include a Screen in h path gence of t beam This factor (in the of the beam, the screen having a very narrow n-1 ,1 case) remains constant, no matter. slit through which the light is transmitted, with" what reflections or refractions the beam may the result that a large Proportion of e emitted 3o undergo, so long of course as the beam .is'not light iswastedrestricted in any way by any stops or so It is also possible to produce from a light This geometrical factor may be referred tozas Source, Such as an are, a flat beam f light by thetotal light grasp. The prod t of the means of an optical system which includes lenses width of the exit pupilin any one direction and having no w -i o plane, cylindrical angle of divergence of the beam. in that lenses. With such systems it is found that a flat rection is termed the light grasp in that dibeam; of very narrow Width cannot be pr duced, rection. The product of the light grasp in One Owing to finite Size Of the light S furdirection and that in a perpendicular direction thel a e of light fr m a li ht source of finite gives, the total light grasp of the beam, thus a Size Cannot be rendered- Pamllel nearly p a -i 40 non-symmetrical beam will have two different 161, but Will always C in converging or. dilight grasps in two mutually perpendicular diverg n y j rections. One object of the present invention is to ob- This may be made clearer by reference to tain a beam 0f light av a y Small light I v' 1 of t accompanying drawings which Shows a grasp in one direction without loss of efiiciency.

diaphragm stop A having a slit aperture A, the Another object of the invention is to provide 45 slit being illuminated by a light source s. An an pt de which decreases the light asp image of this slit is formed on a screen B, by a of a am incident thereon in'one direction d Y lens L. In the plane of the paper, th light efiects a corresponding increase in the light grasp as defined b e i given by w where m grasp of the beam in a direction at right angles at is the width of the slit A in the plane of the to t e fi tdi c paper and a is the angle of divergence of the The preferred optical device includes trans; beam, that is the angle subtended by two rays forming means in the form of two staircaseslof one from each of the two extreme'ends of the reflecting'surfaces inclined with respect to one light source S at any pointin the slit A It another, such a device being described in dewill be seen that for a point. source -thelight tail in my latent No. 2,161,299, issued June 6 1939, but the transforming means may also have the form of one of the stepped devices illustrated in Figs. 2, 13 and 14 of British Patent Specification No. 433,945 referred to above.

Alternatively the transforming means may, as described in British Patent Specification No. 433,945, comprise an optical system including one or more cylindrical lenses the axis of symmetry of each cylindrical lensbeing inclined with respect to the directions of the maximum and minimum light grasp of the beam.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to Figs. 2 to 5 of the accompanying drawings in which: i

Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically an optical device. by which the desired beam can be produced,

Figs. 3 and 1 are diagrams in elevation and plan respectively showing, by way of example, how a beam produced by an optical device according to the present invention may be used in a television receiver, and

Fig. 5 shows a preferred form of a part of Fig. 2.

Referring to Fig. 2, the light from a light source such as an are 4 falls on a lens combination consisting of a spherical lens 5 and a cylindrical lens 9. It will be assumed for the sake of clearness and description that the plane in which the cylindrical lens 6 has no focusing power is a horizontal plane. The power of the spherical lens 5 is arranged to be such that the beam issuing therefrom is substantially parallel, as far as the dimensions of the source 4 will allow. The cylindrical lens 9 converges this light in a vertical plane, but has no power in a horizontal plane. Consequently the beam of light 9 issuing from the lens combination 5, 5 is Wedgeshaped. The light graspof the beam issuing from the lens combination is relatively large. As explained above, the light grasp of a beam of light is not affected by passing the whole beam through a lens.

In the path of this intermediate wedge-shaped beam 9 from the lens combination 5, 6, and near to the apex of the wedge there is placed an optical transforming device '3 comprising a number of narrow staggered right angled prisms 8 arranged as described in my co-pending application Serial No. 3,062 referred to above. The contiguous surfaces of the prisms are arranged as 45 to the horizontal plane of Fig. 2. Each prism 8 receives a narrow wedge-shaped beam of light, those received by the two end prisms la and la being shown at aand e. As described in my co-pending application Serial No. 3,062 previously referred to, the light emergent from each prism will be turned through relative to the incident beam. Consequently the beam emergent from the whole transforming device 'I will be constituted by a number of Wedge-shaped beams diverging in a horizontal plane, and of small width in a vertical plane. Two of these beams, corresponding to the beams 02 and z are shown at c and d. The light grasp of each emergent wedge is large in a vertical direction but small in a horizontal direction. Consequently in the horizontal planeQthe emergent beam l I is wide and strongly divergent and its light grasp in this plane is consequently increased. In the vertical plane the emergent beam H is substantially parallel and is very thin, and its light grasp in this plane has been consequently reduoed. As a result, the total light grasp of the beam has not been changed, but the beam has been given the form of a fiat sheet of light.

In Fig. 2 the transforming device I has, for the sake of ease of description, been shown as comprising a number of staggered right angled prisms. Preferably however, the transforming device is of the kind described and claimed in co-pending application No. 122,017; an example of this kind of device is shown in the accompanying Fig. 5. The device comprises two staircases 3i] and 91 of plates of glass having the surfaces 39' and 3| silvered. The mean planes of the staircases, that is the planes containing the edges of the stairs of the staircases, are at an angle to one another, and the risers 39" and 3|" of each staircase face towards opposite ends of the assembly.

In using such a device in the arrangement of Fig. 2, the apex line of the wedge shaped intermediate beam 9 falling on the first staircase 30 is arranged to be parallel to the junction line LM ofthe mean planes of the staircases. The light is reflected from the silvered surfaces 30' on to the silvered surfaces 3| of the second staircase 3i whence it is reflected to form the beam ll of Fig. 2. A fuller description of the device shown in Fig. 5 is given in my Patent No. 2,161,299, issued June 6, 1939.

In Figs. 3 and 4 is shown the application of the present invention to television receiving apparatus. In these figures, light from a light source 4 is projected on to a spherical lens is and thence on to a cylindrical mirror 9, which condenses the light from the lens 5 into a wedgeshaped beam. In Fig. 4, which represents a plan view of Fig. 3, the spatial distribution of the lens 5 and mirror 6' and the transforming device I have not been accurately represented. The transforming device I which is placed near the line of focus of the light from the mirror 6' has the form shown in Fig. 5.

The light from the transforming device 7 emerges as a flat beam having a large divergence and light grasp in the plane of Fig. 4 and being nearly parallel and having small light grasp in the plane of Fig. 3. The light is passed through a cylindrical condensing lens systemlz having no power in the plane of Fig. 3. In the plane of Fig. 4 this lens system converges the light on to a light modulator l3, which preferably has the form described and claimed in my co-pending application Serial No.;8,451-. One form of the device described in the specification of that application comprises a transparent wave-bearing body in which there are produced high frequency mechanical waves, modulated in accordance with the oscillations (in this case the picture signalsto be reproduced) with which it is desired to modulate the light beam. The. mechanical waves may be generated by a piezoelectric crystal 32 and travel upwards parallel to the plane of Fig. 3. The light beam passing through the body becomes resolved, owing to interference effects produced by the high frequency mechanical waves, into a beam maintaining its normal direction and diffracted beams, the amount, of light in the beam maintaining its normal direction depending on the amplitude of the oscillations with which the high frequency mechanical waves are modulated.

By means of lenses l4, l5 and IS the beam is focused on to the slit I! in the screen l8, this slit serving to arrest the diffracted portion of the light from the modulator l3. The light then passes through the cylindrical lens l9 which converges the beam on to a high speed scanner 20, which gives the beam a component of a scanning motion in the direction of its smaller light grasp, i. e. in the plane of Fig. 3. This .scanner preferably has the form shown in Fig.

3 of my copending application Serial No. 3,062. The remainder of the apparatuspreferably is of the form shown in Fig. 2 of that co-pending application, comprising a transforming device for changing the direction of motion of the beam relative to the beam itself, a low-speed scanning device for giving the second component of a scanning motion, together with a lens system for focusing the beam into a spot upon a screen.

The present invention is however not concerned with this part of the apparatus. The device of this invention may be used for any purpose for which a thin flat sheet of light maybe required, and is not solely applicable to television systems.

It is to be understood that the number of prisms used in the arrangement'of Fig. 2 and the number. of steps in the staircases of arrangements employing devices such as are shown in Fig 5 may be chosen according to circum stances since the thickness of the emergent beam H in Fig. 2 is governed by the thickness of the prisms or steps.

I claim:

1. An optical device for transforming a beam of light having a relatively small light grasp in a first direction and a relatively large light grasp in a second direction at substantially right angles to said first direction, particularly for television and like apparatus, comprising, in combination, an optical system to bearranged in the path of a light beam, said system constituted to project said light beam as an intermediate Wedge shaped beam converging in said first direction, a transforming means arranged across the path of said intermediate wedge-shaped beam near its apex, said means comprising a plurality of optically active surfaces in stepped relation to one another, each of said surfaces arranged to receive a different elemental'part of said wedge-shaped beam and being constituted to twist said elemental part falling thereon through substantially 90 whereby a beam of light emergent from said transforming means results having a relatively small light grasp in said first directional 1d a relatively large light grasp in said second direction.

2. An optical device according to claim 11, wherein said transforming device has the form of a pluraiity of staggered right-angled prisms having parallel opposed. surfaces arranged contiguously.

3. An optical device according to claim 1,

wherein said transforming device comprises two JOHN HENRY JEFFREE. 

